The Crisis around Deve Gowda

(Posted on November 2007)

Deve Gowda joined the list of most talked upon politicians, which includes Sonia Gandhi, Laloo Prasad Yadav and Narendra Modi. The present political turmoil in Karnataka catapulted Deve Gowda as a most sought after subject to talk. In the Media as well as in the Public, Deve Gowda has become a subject of hatred that is more severe than the hatred against Sonia, Laloo and Modi.

What the blunder Deve Gowda did? He just broke up a coalition government in Karnataka. That’s all if you look at it as a whole. But, dramatic ways the things developed made Deve Gowda a cheap and mindless politician in the history of Indian Politics. Remember, there are instances of other parties and personalities pulling a coalition government in this country, in the pretexts of broader reasons.

If we look back at the time of Deve Gowda becoming Prime minister and analyse the things happened at that time, we can get some ideas on how things falling apart now against former Prime minister.

When Deve Gowda became Prime Minister he was the least known among the persons of that category. Everyone of the country, except Karnataka, wondered about the man from nowhere occupying the country’s premier position. But in Karnataka it had a different turn.

The hard rivalry between Deve Gowda and late Ramakrishna Hegde was a well known fact in this state. Ramakrishna Hegde belonged to the breed of politicians like Late P.V. Narasimha Rao. Deve Gowda is more similar to Laloo Prasad Yadav, except that the former plays more petty politics and less hard politics than the latter one.

The rivalry between Gowda and Hegde took a bitter form when Hegde bypassed Gowda to give Chief Ministership to S.R. Bommai when he resigned from that position. Gowda in Desperation formed Samajawadi Party in 1989. Few years later he again joined hands with Hegde to form United Janatha Dal. Hegde announced Deve Gowda’s name as a Chief Minister Candidate in the pre election campaign in 1994. When the party got the majority Hegde tried again to bypass Gowda and give the coveted Chief Minister post to J.H. Patel. Gowda, not known for sophisticated handling, got infuriated and took the post rather forcefully. Then took an ugly turn when Hegde literally got a slap on his face by the slipper from one of the supporters of Gowda. That incident completely polarized the caste factors. Ironically, Ramakrishna Hegde, who was till then a corrupt politician, suddenly became a Hero for the people of his Caste.

When Deve Gowda became Prime Minister by accidently, Hegde couldn’t digest it because he had kept an eye on that. He publicly did outburst against Gowda. After becoming PM, Deve Gowda wielded his power to dismiss Hegde from Janata Dal. All these things lead to a complete hatred against Gowda. When I was travelling on a bus in Bangalore, I could hear one person saying loudly, “the useless Gowda is going crazy. But Hegde definitely would rise like a phoenix to finish off this devil.” The tone of that person was so harsh that one could feel the intensity of the feelings he had with those developments that had taken caste turn.

The point I intent to make here is that Gowda is now getting analyzed in the pre-set feelings. When Gowda was PM, people simply hated him because he was lethargic on the stage; he was not fluent in talking in English in particular; he was simple without any dynamic qualities and any great background.

Coming back to the latest developments one thing I like to say. Deve Gowda is a straight forward politician without any broad ambitions. He wants his family to come up the ladder. He could go to any extent to achieve this. Although, so many able senior personalities being in his party, still he was able to make his son Kumaraswami a Chief Minister. If we imagine any other shrewd politician in the place of Gowda with the same intentions, he could have achieve the things in such a way that the public would appreciate that the move is a sensible one. Deve Gowda doesn’t have the basic shrewdness in projecting his moves in Media or Public. His mannerism is limited to panchayath culture. That’s how he was rightly called “Humble Farmer”.